Happy B-Day Paul Stanley!

Everyone seems to be sharing their Paul Stanley photos to celebrate his birthday today. Here’s one of my favorite shots of him. This concert was one of the biggest shows I’ve ever covered and it was only a couple of weeks after I got into the swing of concert photography in the summer of 2014. I could hardly believe I was approved to work the Detroit KISS show.

It had only been a few months since I was in the nose-bleed section at the American Idol XIII finale in LA – watching the world’s biggest rock band parade on stage like ants in leather pants. Now I was in a photo pit just an arms length away, feeling very, very insignificant.

I felt like I wasn’t worthy – and I really wasn’t, but I was determined to not fail. I had a simple job to do: aim a camera, push a button, make sure I wasn’t using a flash. How hard could it be? I’ve done it before, but this time it was different. I was distracted. The butterflies in my stomach ate at me as I waited for an eternity for the giant three story KISS curtain to be lifted. As my mind wandered, the the lights suddenly went dark and the speakers blared the iconic, “You wanted the best, you got the best!” line.

Fireworks lit the place up and Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer appeared on stage. Eric Singer far in the back sitting behind his drums. Show time. And time for me to get to “work.”

As the first note was played and the speakers and crowd erupted all of the anxiety I was feeling disappeared and a surge of adrenaline took over because a small handful of the most well known rock stars in the world were literally posing for my camera. The experience was surreal. Up to this point concert photography was just a hobby for me, but the KISS show left me completely addicted.

Happy b-day Paul Stanley!

 

You can view more of my photos of KISS on my Flickr page, just click here.